Entrepreneurial Intention Essay

Introduction

The knowledge economy, characterized by ambiguity and uncertainty, the globalization, the generation of new knowledge and the abundance of information, requires of enterprising individuals (Julien, 2005). Those responsible for the development of policies publics on entrepreneurship in Europe and the United States believe that it is necessary a higher level of entrepreneurial culture to achieve high levels of economic growth. Also, empirical studies have supported positive relationships between entrepreneurial activities and economic results such as economic growth and innovation (2007). Those responsible for the development of public policies also believe that the increase in levels of entrepreneurial activity can be achieved through of education (Commission, 2006).

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Kuwait has proposed a general orientation to build a culture of entrepreneurship in the establishments of basic and average education. In the regulatory framework, Law 1014 of 2006, article 13, establishes that the promotion of the culture of entrepreneurship and their training at the level of basic and secondary education is mandatory. Although this consideration little is known about the way in which a culture can be encouraged enterprising in the establishments of basic and average education.

Entrepreneurial Intent and Theory of Planned Behavior

The entrepreneurial intention is a requisite process before acting. Behavioural investigation about the concept affirms that the intention has a capacity for further explanation than other factors, such as, for example, the psychological nature (Krueger, N., Reilly, M., & Casrund, A., 2000). The entrepreneurial intention is a mind status that people have in favour of opting for the creation of a new company or the creation of value within organizations existing. It is the commitment to perform the necessary behaviour to carry an entrepreneurial initiative (Krueger, 1993). We also face one of the predominant questions in research about entrepreneurship that refers to the reasons as to why some people decide to be enterprising while other people lack interest (Mitchell et al., 2007). This question can be addressed regarding the factors that influence the decision to undertake to focus on personality traits or characteristics of individuals (Shapero and Sokol, 1982). Recently in the field of entrepreneurship research, the models of intention that focus on attitudes have been proposed as a better explanation of that question. In particular, research on entrepreneurial intention in educational institutions at primary and secondary education levels, leaving a gap in the literature related to pre-university entrepreneurship or of secondary education (Peterman and Kennedy, 2003). However, in recent years studies have emerged on the development of an entrepreneurial culture in establishments of primary and secondary level education (Peterman and Kennedy, 2003) since it is believed that the ideal scenario to acquire basic knowledge about an entrepreneurial culture and encourage a positive attitude towards the action of undertaking occurs during the years of childhood and adolescence (Li, J., Wu, S., & Wu, L., 2008).

The entrepreneurial intention has frequently been studied through the use of models of intention which provide a robust and coherent framework for understanding the process of entrepreneurial intention. The most used in the literature of entrepreneurship are the theory of planned behaviour (TCP) of Linan (2008) and the social model of the event enterprising (SEE) of Shapero and Sokol (1982). The fundamental reason that justifies its use reiterated the ability of the two models to overlap and their compatibility (Krueger et al., 2000). Consequently and according to the empirical research, each element of TCP significantly affects entrepreneurial intention. In this sense, the results of the research support the applicability of the TCP in entrepreneurship. The way in which the intention items are written presupposes that the student has already developed in his mind the idea of creating a company. If you respond positively to the affirmation, it means that he has developed this idea; otherwise, he would not have developed it. As the model is not experimental, the intention is not induced to the participants but which is called to assess how closely they approximate the proposed behaviour.

The understanding entrepreneurial intention is of vital importance in the prediction of conduct. Intentions are important in predicting subsequent planned behaviour (Kolvereid, L., & Isaksen, E. 2006) since people make conscious and voluntary decisions to become entrepreneurs. In this context, the theory of planned behaviour establishes the premise that any behaviour needs a specific level of deliberation. Thus, the decision-making process of developing an enterprising career can be considered a planned behaviour or motivated behaviour with a strong relationship between action and intentions.

Entrepreneurial Intention Model

The theory of planned behaviour (TCP) is a general model used in explaining the individual action. This has been very useful for the evaluation of entrepreneurial intention in the framework of entrepreneurship research (Krueger et al., 2000). The TCP states that conscious individual decisions to behave in a given are what determines their actions. It also establishes that those intentions are the attitude results presented by life experiences, personal characteristics and perceptions constructed by the individual from past experiences. According to Krueger and others, (2000) there are three factors that determine behaviour intention:

Behavioural attitude: it is understood as the level through which an individual has a suitable or unsuitable assessment of their behaviour, in this case, to carry out an entrepreneurial action. Subjective rules: refer to the perceived social pressure to perform or not a particular behaviour. It refers to the degree and determination to fulfil the wishes of those important behaviours in the life of the individual. For example, the expectations of the individual's family about the convenience of becoming an entrepreneur,

Perception of behaviour control: refers to ease or difficulty perceived of the performance of the certain behaviour. It is the perception that the individual has his ability to carry out a specific behaviour. This determinant is closely related to the concept of self-efficacy (Linan, 2006) developed by Bandura (1986). Both refer to perceptual factors that are specific to achieving a certain behaviour or behavioural goal. For this study the question asked to the students was related to the ability perceived by them to carry out any type of entrepreneurial action which is limited to activities that involve work, reward, risk, new ways of doing and other aspects aligned with the project / company concept (Li et al., 2008).

As it was stated, the TCP and the social model of the entrepreneurial event (SEE) presents a high degree of mutual compatibility. The determinant of behaviour attitude towards covers the concept of perceived desirability of the ESS model. Subjective norms coincide with the idea of feasibility and desirability while feasibility coincides with the perception of behaviour control (Krueger et al., 2000). Consequently, both models emphasize the motivational background for entrepreneurial intention. The variables used by the TCP reflect in large part what other models like one of the competitions they try to explain. If we start with a psychological analysis of competences, we can observe as according to Linan, and Chen (2006) the competencies are defined as motivations and personality traits. The motivations are part of the attitudes, the social roles are part of subjective norms, while self-image and skills are part of the perceptions of control.

References

Kolvereid, L., and Isaksen, E. (2006). New business start-up and subsequent entry into self-employment. Journal of Business Venturing, 21, 866-885.

Krueger, N., Reilly, M., and Casrund, A. (2000). Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing, 15 (5/6), 411-432.

Li, J., Wu, S., and Wu, L. (2008). The impact of higher education on entrepreneurial intentions of university students in China. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 15, 752-774.

Linan, F. (2004). Intention-based models of entrepreneurship education. Small Business, 3, 11-35.

Linan, F., and Chen, Y. (2006). Testing the entrepreneurial intention model on a two-country sample. Working Paper 06/07, Department of Business Economics, University of Barcelona.